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"Do you cherish that of God within you, that his power growing in you may rule your life? Do you seek to follow Jesus who shows us the Father and teaches us the Way?" (Christian Faith & Practice, London Yearly Meeting, 1960)

December 12, 2004

"...but what canst thou say?"

"Ye will say Christ said this, and the apostles say this, but what canst thou say? Art thou a child of the Light and hast thou walked in the Light, and when thou speakest, is it inwardly from God?"Thank you Larry for bringing this wonderful quote forward. The direct experience of God is a kind of Knowing, which is beyond our cognition, beyond our intellect. When we feel this Light of Christ, or God, or Being within us, we know it, and cannot help but feel a subtle bliss, a warm feeling of love radiating. As Jesus said in John 10.30 "I and the Father are one." This is the experience of those who experience this union of God within. To know Christ, to know God, is to be permeated with the essence of this union. This is knowing God directly, the seed, the purest moment of our spirituality, foremost over any understanding of God through Scripture, doctrines, teachings, or church.

On page 21 of Friends for 300 Years I found this; we might call it Fox's systematic theology:"To Fox the universe apparently consisted of two kinds of existences, variously designated Substance and Shadow (light and darkness?), Eternity and Time, Unity and Multiplicity, or Life and Form.

The object of religion was to bring men (people?) out of the second into the first, "up to" the first, as Fox usually expressed it. The Light was the Life that went out of Substance, Unity, Eternity down into Shadow, Time, Multiplicity and by its uplifting Power drew men to the higher type of Being which existed before the lower type of Being existed and which would continue to exist after the lower had disappeared".

Well that's a mouthful! And not Fox's words, but Brinton's. I find this enormously satisfying because in my mind it connects the thought of this unlettered young man stricken by an Experience with the sum of philosophic and spiritual thought of the ages.

I heartily wish that more Quakers, and more everyone could see the spiritual truth involved here.

Of course, like David, I can't quite envision moving into that rare level of existence and consciousness, but I sure believe this describes the Reality in which we all live, whether we're conscious of it or not.

Incidentally this system of thought conforms closely to the whole point of Blake's voluminous and impregnably opaque long poems-- and in fact to everything he did.

"Substance" and "Shadow" are not so much about Light/Dark but about reality and illusion. Think how a shadow cast by a person has the form of the person but not the substance of a person. When the substance coems the shadow cannot stand Fox said someplace or other. Think a reflection in a poor disappearing when the person dives in.

Fox is borrowing the language of biblical typology but applying it to everyday lives.